WIDELY respected and long-serving New Forest councillor Jane Safe died at home in Bransgore on May 5, aged 76.

Mrs Safe served on the New Forest District Council from 1973 until 1991, as its chairman from 1985 to 1987, and as chairman of Bransgore Parish Council for nearly two decades.

She was greatly admired by those who worked with her and who benefitted from her extensive experience of public life.

Born in Addlestone, Surrey, on May 23, 1937, Mrs Safe was one of four children. Her mother died when she was 17, and she looked after the family home in her stead, even while completing her A-level exams.

She attended the Sir William Perkins School in Chertsey, where she met lifelong friend Gill Hucker, and the pair went on to complete an intensive six month secretarial course at Brooklyn Technical College in Weybridge.

On completing the course she worked as private secretary at Charing Cross Hospital, then at the Royal Insurance Company.

She met her future husband Michael on 1961, and they were married on December 16, 1963, at Herne Hill Methodist Church in London.

Not long afterwards in 1963 they moved to and fell in love with Bransgore, where they would remain for half a century.

Their children Helen and Richard were born in 1965 and 1968 respectively.

Initially Mrs Sade was elected to East Christchurch Parish Council in 1970, but following boundary changes she served as a councillor for Bransgore for 25 years.

Mrs Safe was praised as a “careful hand on the tiller” throughout the civic upheaval of the 1970s by current chairman Richard Frampton.

She oversaw, and where she was able, checked the rapid growth of the village throughout that decade, during which its population nearly trebled from a mere 1,600.

Well into the 1980s she opposed what she considered to be excessive development proposals, although she believed the influx of younger residents from outside the community brought many benefits and added vitality to the village.

She was a founding member of Bransgore Twinning Association, Bransgore Friendship Club and the New Forest Commoning Trust, and she ran the village’s annual charity quiz for 40 years.

She was also involved with the East Dorset Community Health Council, the Advisory Committee for Education (south-west Hampshire), Brockenhurst College, the Red House Museum in Christchurch, Hampshire Building Preservation Trust, the Association of District Councils, and the New Forest West Police Liaison Committee, and many other community organisations.

She was thought of by her friends and family as an excellent cook, and also took up an interest in quilting. She and her husband grew close to friends in France made through the twinning arrangement with Saint-Georges-Montcocq which she helped to foster. Among their more memorable visits were five skiing holidays to the Alps.

A funeral service was held at St Mary’s Church, Bransgore, on Tuesday.